The Crier in Emptiness
The Crier in Emptiness was the third of 11 TOS stories produced by Peter Pan Records. It was initially released in 1975 as an audio production along with two other stories. It was subsequently packaged by itself accompanied by a 20-page comic book. This was the third of seven stories set during Captain James T. Kirk’s first five-year mission aboard the and the second of six with an associated comic book. In this story, the crew were visited by a non-corporeal entity composed of pure sound. Introduction ;Ad for TOS record #1 :The crew of the ''Enterprise in a trio of exciting adventures on a long-playing 33 1/3 RPM disc! You’ll be on the edge of your seat for the “Passage to Moauv,” weep for “The Crier in Emptiness,” and drink in “In Vino Veritas”! High-quality recordings, with no “warp factor”!'' Summary :Captain's log, stardate 5444.9: The Enterprise is on a charting run through the partially explored Moran sector. Since this region seems relatively devoid of suns and planets, we expect to be finished here in a few days. Kirk out. :Captain's log, supplementary: The mysterious music has been with us for three days now and gives indications of increasing rather than abating. Every effort to locate some source for the sounds has proven futile. We are no closer to an explanation than we were days ago. References Characters : • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • sound entity • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura Christine Chapel Starships and vehicles : shuttlecraft Locations :Moran sector Races and cultures :Human • Vulcan Edoan States and organizations :Federation • Starfleet Science and technology :black hole • communications • computer • parsec • quasar • radisar • sensor Ranks and titles :captain • lieutenant • nurse Other references :bone • bridge • concerto • Elisiar • keyboard • music • sign language • sleep • sound • violin • xylophone Timeline Chronology Production history * The Crier in Emptiness was first released in 1975 on Peter Pan TOS record #1 of 23, a 33-rpm LP, along with Passage to Moauv and In Vino Veritas. * It was repackaged in 1975 as a solo story on 45-rpm record #6 accompanied by a 20-page comic book printed on thicker, whiter paper than was normal for comics at that time. * Subsequent record re-releases in 1979 had cover imagery from . The audio appeared on records #11 and 22 and the audio/comic on records #12 and #13. * The audio/comic was also released on audio cassette together with Passage to Moauv in 1979. Appendices Background * McCoy rotated personnel in shifts aboard a shuttlecraft so that they would be able get sleep without interruption from the sound creature. Only one shuttle was used for this purpose. * The stardate suggested that this story took place shortly after the previous audio production, In Vino Veritas. * The Elisiar was mentioned several times in . Joran Dax saw it played in a concert. During the Dominion War, the A.C. Walden Medicine Show musical troupe performed with the Elisiar on Romii. In 2381, they considered having A'l'e'r'w'w'o'k play the Elisiar on Troyius. In 2381, Ezri Dax heard a jam session on the which featured Spon on the Elisiar. Dax considered the instrument’s sound to be haunting. * When Kirk remarked about the sound creature possibly being lonely, Uhura quietly commented, “I heard a voice crying in the wilderness.” She was referring to a statement made by John the Baptist in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible. * The inside cover artwork was the same as with the single release for Passage to Moauv, with line-art illustrations of characters from the ''Planet of the Apes'' movie series seen by Roberta Lincoln. The traveled through a spatial anomaly into Apes continuity in the . The artwork also included Dracula, who briefly appeared in . * Although the captain’s log said the Enterprise was in an empty region of the Moran sector, the accompanying artwork depicted the Enterprise in a star system close to a star with at least four planets and a moon. * Conners cited a lack of “radisars” in the Moran sector. Radisars were not a currently-known astronomical phenomena. * Nyota Uhura was drawn like Nichelle Nichols on the cover, but not in the interior. Hikaru Sulu was drawn as an African-American. Images Crier-Conners.jpg|Lieutenant Connors Crier-sound-entity.jpg|Non-corporeal Sound entity Crier-Elisiar.jpg|Elisiar Peter Pan11.jpg|1979 LP re-release Peter Pan12.jpg|1979 book and record re-release Peter Pan13.jpg|1979 book and record re-release Peter Pan22.jpg|1979 LP re-release External links * Category:Audiobooks Category:TOS comics Category:1975 productions and publications